Bush Heritage Australia to protect vital piece of Murray-Darling Basin ecosystem
Leading conservation not-for-profit Bush Heritage Australia to protect a property that forms one of the most important waterbird breeding sites in Australia.
Nil Desperandum (a Latin name that means 'nothing to be despaired of') is an important connecting property protecting a section of the Murray-Darling Basin in north-western NSW.
As Australia's largest river basin, spanning across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland, the Murray-Darling Basin is a critical environment to protect and faces numerous threats. Our water sources are the lifeblood of our planet. Protecting them is crucial for healthy ecosystems and a sustainable future.
Nil Desperandum and our adjacent Naree Station Reserve, lie in the Mulga Lands bioregion, 150km north-west of Bourke. It lies on the Cuttaburra Channels that connect the Paroo and Warrego Rivers at Yantabulla Swamp, which adjoins the property to the west.
This is one of the least disturbed and most intact areas of the Murray-Darling Basin. The reserve provides a safe-haven for species that rely on arid-zone wetlands and waterways. Many river systems in the Murray-Darling Basin are severely degraded. The flows of the Paroo River, which feed into Yantabulla Swamp, have been protected from modification since 2003, making it the last free-flowing river in the basin.
The purchase and ongoing management of Nil Desperandum gives us the opportunity to improve our management of Yantabulla Swamp, a nationally important wetland and breeding site for a wide range of waterbirds.
This is a semi-arid flood zone, often dry with red, dusty soil underfoot. But when it rains to the north the landscape comes to life. The plants and animals are adapted to take advantage of every drop of water, often waiting years for its arrival.
The land’s ecology reflects the boom and bust cycles of wet and dry that are typical of the rangelands of inland Australia.
Vital connectivity
Our presence in the Murray Darling Basin was established in 2012 with the purchase of Naree Station Reserve. In 2015 Yantabulla Station, a property adjoining Naree, was bought for conservation by the South Endeavor Trust. With skilled land managers already on the ground, it made sense for us to form a partnership and to manage the land as one consolidated reserve. Nil Desperandum fills an important gap between Naree and Yantabulla, and gives us land on both sides of the Cuttaburra Creek.
NSW Parks acquired what is now Brindingabba National Park in 2022 and Cuttaburra National Park in 2024. With the additions of these 34,000 ha patches there is now over 100,000 ha of protected bushland in the area. Reconnecting intact ecosystems allows species to move through the landscape and allows land managers to tackle threats on a larger scale.
What Nil Desperandum protects
The property is home to rare ecological communities such as Coolibah-Black Box Woodlands, endangered in NSW. It also improves our capacity to reduce stock incursions and manage feral animals such as wild pigs and goats, two of the highest ranked threats to Naree and Yantabulla.
Perhaps most importantly, the area is home to more than 150 bird species and will add to our management of this crucial water bird breeding site. Just across the creek at Naree, we’ve recorded over 200 species of vertebrate animals, including threatened species such as Pink Cockatoos, Grey Falcons, and Kultarr.
Image Information
Pink Cockatoos. Photo Gerard O'Neil.
Cultural values
The Budjiti are Traditional Custodians and since our purchase of Naree in 2012, Budjiti elder Phil Eulo and his family have been helping us understand the area's history, natural values and cultural connections. They’ve helped with our environmental and heritage assessments and with our conservation planning. We’re tremendously pleased to have the Budjiti so intimately involved in our conservation work.
Budjiti booklet
To promote an understanding of their culture, the Budjiti people have produced a booklet describing the traditional uses of local plants.
5 MB 
– Phil Eulo, Budjiti elder“Bush Heritage is doing what we wanted to do all along – keep our country natural. Now we’ve got the opportunity to bring this back to its natural state... for the new generations, white and black.”
